Russian satirist’s daughter arrested for respecting the law

On 23 December at the court hearing into the case of civic activist Sergei Konstantinov, several people were detained and taken to the police station. They included the daughter of well-known satirist and opposition figure Victor Shenderovich, Valentina Chubarova. 

Two men and two women, including Ms Chubarova, have been released on a signed undertaking not to abscond, and the court hearing into their case has been scheduled for 29 November.

The young people all endeavour to appear as witnesses in the trial of those arrested during a sanctioned picket on Arbat Square in Moscow. When the judge demanded that they leave the court room, they stated, via the lawyer, that they would comply with this demand only if the judge declared the court hearing to be in closed session. The four witnesses are now being charged with not obeying the judge’s demand that they cease action infringing the rules of the court (Article 17.3 of the Russian Code of Administrative Offences).

The four spent last night in police detention.  According to one of the men, Alexander Kazakov they were properly treated, however police officers tried to take Ms Chubarova’s personal possessions off her without witnesses or a protocol being drawn up. They were not given the opportunity to make a statement over the incident.

Sergei Konstantinov was arrested on Friday at a picket against vote-rigging in the elections to the State Duma and the forced conscription into the army of another opposition activist Oleg Kozlovsky.

Three other people detained on Friday have already been sentenced. A young woman was found guilty of failing to obey police orders and was fined two thousand roubles, while two young men on the same charge received 10 day administrative imprisonment sentences and were each fined 1,000 roubles.

The well-known Russian political commentator and writer Valeria Novodvoskaya made these comments about the arrest of Sergei Konstantinov. 

“There hadn’t been arrests for taking part in sanctioned protest actions in Russia since 1988, almost 20 years. The Kremlin and Lubyanka [FSB] are hurrying to thrust Russia back into the USSR and revenge themselves against democrats for that short period of reform under Yeltsin which the official hacks now label chaos and catastrophe. The authorities are even getting their back on young people who in 1988 weren’t even 10 years old, for not having grown up under their control.